When Dreams Become Nightmares
by Mobgirl
Summary: Robin is living out her dreams of being a wife and a mother. Unfortunetly it doesn't take long for her dreams to become living nightmares. Who can help her survive it?
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:**__** This is my idea for an alternative ending to the biotoxin storyline done on GH early this year. It contains mostly Jason in hit-man mode and contains more violence than most of my stories will contain. It is only three chapters. Please review.**_

_**When Dreams Become Nightmares**_

Jason hurried down the stairs toward the front door. Whoever was there sure was insistent he thought. It dawned on him that it must be Carly. Once she decided on a course of action, there was simply no stopping her. She would stand outside his door pounding until he let her in. She tended to bring out the best and the worst in him at exactly the same time. It was not unusual for him to find himself impressed with her while simultaneously wanting to strangle her. It was just the way she was.

Jason opened the door to find that it was indeed Carly who had been pounding on the door. She gave him a big hug as she came in.

"What trouble are you in now, Carly?" He asked immediately. It was how things worked between them. She would get herself into trouble and Jason would risk everything to get her out. She was his boss' ex-wife and he protected her and her kids at all costs.

He had no doubt that she really did love him. She would risk anything for him. It drove her husband Jax crazy that they were so close and she would depend on Jason before anyone else. They were very good friends and it really surprised a lot of people.

"I'm done waiting Jason." Carly announced as she plopped on the couch. This was her signal that they had a lot to discuss. "I want to know why that horrible woman is living with you!"

Inwardly Jason groaned. He did not want to discuss this with her right now. He hated her attitude toward any woman in his life but in particular Robin. Still, he figured she wouldn't leave until she got an answer.

Jason did not talk about it much. Those who knew him would say he didn't talk about anything much. He was always reluctant to talk about himself. With the line of work Jason was in, sharing information was a good way to end up in prison or dead.

Carly was one of the few people who get him to talk about something when he did not want to. However, even she had a hard time getting him to discuss the events that had turned Robin's dreams into living nightmares. She could tell that it hurt Jason to discuss it. Regardless, Carly felt she had to push the point anyway. It was the quest for answers that drove her forward. She didn't want to see Jason hurt but she really had to know what had happened. She had to know how a woman she couldn't trust at all was living with the man she trusted with everything. Jason could never say no to Carly. He was everything to her. Her butting into his life was how she showed she cared.

He knew that really she had no idea of the hell that everyone involved had been through. He sat down beside her on the couch and took a moment to collect his thoughts before he began.

"It started the night the FBI and Agent Raynor were done questioning Patrick about the biotoxin release at the hospital. He came home agitated, which was of course understandable. He had been through hell during the scare at the hospital, the death of his several staff members, and worrying about Robin."

Jason got up and pored Carly a drink he knew she would want soon and set it in front of her before he continued. "Patrick came home and unloaded both barrels of worry on Robin all at once…

_'Have you completely lost your mind?' Patrick had screamed as the front door slammed behind him._

_Robin had starred at him for a full minute before her fury and her Post Partum Depression overwhelmed her tongue and she said "No, but obviously you have. Most people who almost die don't come home screaming at their wife, they come in thankful to be alive and wanting to see their families."_

"Somewhere in the first sentences of that horrible fight, they both lost all grasp of what was going on around them. They had been through too much at that point I guess", Jason said quietly as he looked Carly directly in the eye.

_Patrick hollered back as his anger became even more pronounced and more out of touch with what was really bothering him. He told her 'Most of them don't have psychotic wives who are suffering from PPD and refuse to get help. And most of them probably don't have the same wife who lose all touch of reality and take their infant trapsing through a blizzard and then forgetting where the hell she laid her own daughter!'_

'_I was suffering from hypothermia you ass! That is why I couldn't remember. But I had put Emma in a spot I figured would be safe since it was obvious that we were far from help.'_

'_If it wasn't for Maxie and Johnny our daughter would be dead because of you.'_

'_If it wasn't for Maxie and Johnny, both Emma and I would be dead now. But obviously my death wouldn't have bothered you much.' Robin screamed back at him as she grabbed her purse and ran crying from their house._

Never one for alcohol Jason surprised himself, and astonished Carly, when he got up again and make himself a drink. This time he took a big swig before returning to the couch and his story.

"The super called me. He had found her sitting in the hall outside the penthouse door. She was crying uncontrollably and he couldn't understand what she was trying to say. Since he didn't see blood or anything like that, he didn't call the police. He called me."

Carly and Jason each took a big drink at the same time and smiled at each other. Friends are good, Jason thought to himself briefly, even if they do drive you crazy sometimes.

"I was clear across town in a major business meeting but I made it here in about 5 minutes I think. I broke every speed limit and traffic law out there. I just knew she needed me and I was going to come through for her."

"So, I carried her inside. I checked her over for obvious injuries and couldn't find any. Then I wrapped a blanket around her and she laid her head on my chest and cried most of the night."

Jason stood up suddenly and went to look in the fireplace. When he turned around a few minutes later Carly could see he was trying hard not to cry.

"I told her to go back," he said as his voice broke and he struggled to control it. "I told her to go back. I said Patrick has been through too much to process from the whole biotoxin thing. And I told Robin that she probably was suffering from PPD and would need treatment for that and had been through too much to process herself."

Wordlessly, Carly picked up her drink and drained the rest of it in one swallow. Then watched in horror a moment later when without warning, Jason picked up his and threw it angrily into the fireplace. "I told her to go home!"

Knowing she wanted to help him, to make him feel better somehow, Jason smiled ruefully at Carly. "Sorry. I am better now. It just makes me mad when I think about it."

"I told her to go home. That their marriage had suffered a lot in a short time but they could work it out together. She believed me. She even told me I always knew exactly what she needed to hear and said the right things at the right time." Jason's eyes fell from Carly's face and he stared unseeingly at the coffee table. "I told her to go home and I almost got her killed."

_**Author's Note:**__** Thanks for reading. This was a hastily written story as I struggled to get everything down on paper before I lost it. Please review. Your honest feedback is greatly appreciated!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**When Dreams Become Nightmares – Chapter 2**_

Even as he was thinking about telling Carly everything, Jason knew it would be alright. She was Sonny's ex-wife and had been his best friend for years. Plus, Carly had never said to anyone outside "the family" as it were about anything she had seen, heard, or done. He knew she wouldn't tell anyone, no matter what. His secrets were always safe with her.

"Robin went home to Patrick the next day. She left here at 10am and seemed optimistic about them talking things out. However, neither of us knew that the biotoxin was waiting to claim one more victim and that the fight between her and Patrick would go from horrible to tragic in a matter of hours."

"When she headed home she stopped by Mac's to check on Emma. All was well there. He was enjoying a couple of days off work and being with his great niece. I am sure he noticed the strain on her face, however she was able to play it off as the whole biotoxin thing and say she and Patrick needed another day to themselves. Then, she went home."

"Things went from bad to worse the moment she got home. He was still going nuts and screaming about the night Robin's van broke down and they walked through the snow and Robin put Emma in a tree to keep her safe from the storm since she was moments from collapsing in the snow herself. She knew they wouldn't reach help in time."

"Desperate people do desperate things. She was trying to save Emma's life by putting her in the tree. It was the hypothermia that made her forget where Emma was. Had things been different, Patrick would have recognized that."

Jason paused briefly when Carly went over to the rarely used bar and made herself a drink. He shook his head no when she asked if he wanted another.

"Anyway, she went home and they continued fighting. She called me in near hysterics about 5 that afternoon saying Patrick had accused her of killing Emma to punish him. She was hiding in the bathroom and couldn't get the window open to climb out. Patrick was pounding on the door and screaming at her that she had to die for killing his baby. She and I knew Emma wasn't dead that she was safe at Mac's. He had known that yesterday but right then he didn't know that. He was honestly going to kill her for killing Emma."

"Robin swears up and down I was there in three minutes flat. I don't see how that is possible, but then again if I hadn't been there that quickly she would be dead now. When I burst in the door and tore upstairs toward to bathroom I had no idea how crazy he was. Robin was trying to squeeze into the small space between the toilet and the wall and pleading with Patrick that to realize their baby wasn't dead, that he didn't need to kill her."

"I had about two seconds to make a decision and the only thing I could do was make sure he couldn't kill Robin."

At this point, Jason's voice changes in a way very few people have ever seen and lived to explain. It was the change that frightened Carly. She wasn't afraid of Jason, just the deadly calm that came over him when it when it was time to actually pull the trigger.

"I cocked the gun as I pulled it and screamed at him to drop it or I would drop him."

"It was like Robin knew what was coming because she closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears. Of course, that didn't stop the sound of the bullet or the flash from the muzzle of the gun from penetrating every fiber of her being as my bullet tore through her husband's head and left him lying dead a few inches from her."

Carly opened her mouth to ask a question but couldn't make any words come out. Jason nodded like he already understood the question.

"He was holding an axe. When I came in screaming at him to drop it, he raised it like he was going to swing it on her head and I dropped him. I killed Robin's husband."

Jason lapsed into silence. He was emotionally exhausted. This time when Carly made herself another drink she did not even ask Jason if he wanted one or not. She simply made him one and handed it to him.

"Sonny called me that evening," Carly stated. "He said something had happened and I must come over right away. I had no idea what to expect when I got there."

"When Sonny showed me into one of the spare bedrooms, Robin had already been sedated by whatever mob doctor he is using now. He was obviously upset and didn't want to talk about it and he lied to me. He told me that someone had broken into Robin and Patrick's home and killed Patrick and that Robin was in shock and didn't know who had done it."

"I know," Jason told her. "It was the same story I told Mac when I called him. I'm pretty sure Mac and Alexis both had an idea of what had really happened. They never really tried to pin anything on me. They put it down as a random act of violence and let it go."

Jason looked sadly at Carly and finished by saying "Alexis and I don't get along much better than Mac and I do, but she knows that I would never kill Robin's husband unless an extreme circumstance forced me to. I don't know how or why, I simply know they let me walk away. I gave them the official version and then I left to get Robin from Sonny's and bring her back here."

"My God Jason, that is awful! I had no idea what had really happened that night. I just assumed that you or Sonny had hunted down who really did this and killed them…" Her voice trailed off as a tear fell down her check. This truly surprised Jason since he knew Carly and Robin almost hated each other.

Carly's tear surprised them both. Carly hurried to wipe it away while Jason closed the distance between them and gave her a big hug. He held her tightly and whispered in her ear.

"About 18 months after Patrick died; Agent Raynor came to see me and Robin again. He said the final autopsy report was done and he had finally managed to get his hands on a copy of the classified report. The report stated that Patrick was really another victim of the biotoxin. For some unknown reason it affected his brain instead of going after the lungs like it had on the others. His brain was so swollen from the effects of that stuff that he couldn't possibly have understood what he was doing and that whoever killed him probably did so in self defense."

Jason continued to hold Carly tight, which was okay with her. She wasn't trying to get away. In fact, she was leaning in closer because as he talked he became more and more quiet.

"Equinox invented the stuff. They did not take enough preventive actions to keep it away from the public and they damned near killed Robin in the process. They could have killed many people I cared about in the hospital that day. You were there, so was Sonny, Monica, Edward, and others. There was no way I could let all those people walk away from that. Those four men who died before they could be indicted had some help in their deaths. It wasn't suicide like the press reported."

With that said, Jason let Carly go. He couldn't talk anymore and the day's revelations had left her exhausted. She probably said something before leaving, but he didn't hear it.


	3. Chapter 3

No one was surprised that Robin fell apart after Patrick's death. In fact, her grief was so large that most had no clue how to help her. They were very glad that Jason immediately took care of everything. He moved Robin and Emma into his penthouse, putting them in his room since it was the largest and he moved to the spare room.

She was always a survivor and had moved on from "that night" as she always referred to it, but it had always haunted her. She could talk opening and honestly about that first night, about that horrible fight that she and Patrick had. She would not discuss the next day with anyone. Anyone save the one that helped her survive it. She would only discuss that day with Jason. He had saved her life and he was the only one who fully understood what had happened.

With Jason having told Carly the truth, there were now four people who knew the true account of the events and not the one given to the Port Charles Police Department. It was a small circle of friends bound by a common secret. Sonny, Carly, Jason, and Robin all found new respect for each other in light of the tragedy.

It took nearly a year and a half, but Robin made a full recovery and found some peace. Learning why events had turned so horribly wrong in the first place helped. She needed to know that Patrick's death was inevitable and that it really wasn't her fault.

Since "that night" Robin had never complained about the violence in Jason's life or the fact that Sonny had made him a rich man by employing him as a mob hit-man. She simply accepted that part of his life and loved him completely.

In the end, she and Jason found their way back to each other's arms again. No one remembers the actual date it happened. Somewhere along the way Jason moved back into his bedroom with Robin and they moved the active toddler to the spare bedroom.

Jason was back in the master bedroom with Robin. Emma was enjoying the big girl bed in the spare bedroom. That left one room vacant in the penthouse since Spinelli had recently moved in with Maxie.

As Robin headed home from the hospital that night she checked her rearview mirror. The dark colored sedan that had followed her since she left the hospital was still there. This did not cause her any concern, in fact it was a relief. She never thought she would ever get used to the guards that Jason insisted she and Emma have but somewhere along the way, she did. Seeing them in the rearview mirror assured her that all was well in her world again.

With this peace of mind, Robin began to feel hope once again. She decided tonight she would share her secret. The person who could fill the vacancy in their precious home would arrive in just over seven months.

THE END

_**Author's Note:**__** Thanks for reading this story. Your honest reviews are greatly appreciated!**_


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